Posted: 4/19/2009 7:17:11 AM EDT
| Well my potatoes are up and its time to be thinking about what to pile on top of them. I've got some fairley rotten straw/hay, I've got most of a pickup truck full of red oak sawdust with some dirt mixed infrom a big stump grinding, and I've got dirt (very clay rich). Which of these or what combination of these would be my best bet? Red potatoes from the co-op if that makes any difference. |
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I'm doing a tater tower at my place for the first time this year. I'm having a lot of fun with it. I raked up a lot of leaves last fall and I'm stacking leaf moulder on periodically with the help of a 6 year old.
I'd vote for the stump grindings because it will be "lighter" than the clay, but my understanding is that they aren't really particular about what they grow in/under. BTW- I found some of that false allium in my yard the other day. Thanks for that picture. -Hobbit |
| This year I"m using mulched poop-filled leaves courtesy of my 6 hens. You might want to check with rusteerroster on the sawdust. I don't know if he used aged sawdust or not. IMHO I'd use the composted hay and stuff and let the sawdust age for a couple of months. |
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I would mix some of the dirt and some of the rotted straw––VERY LITTLE (if any) of the sawdust unless it's been composted. The stump grinding is basically just more sawdust, so I'd put most of the sawdust and the stump grindings in a compost pile and let it compost for later. The rotted straw will lighten up the clay so it doesn't turn into concrete. You can then mulch over top of all of it with more rotted straw. The other alternative is using just the soil and then mulching with the straw. As long as you've got some kind of mulch, the clay won't turn to concrete nearly as quickly. Kitties |
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Quoted:
I'm doing a tater tower at my place for the first time this year. I'm having a lot of fun with it. I raked up a lot of leaves last fall and I'm stacking leaf moulder on periodically with the help of a 6 year old. I'd vote for the stump grindings because it will be "lighter" than the clay, but my understanding is that they aren't really particular about what they grow in/under. BTW- I found some of that false allium in my yard the other day. Thanks for that picture. -Hobbit I planted my seed potatoes in a 40 gallon garbage can in late Feb. I've been covering them every time they grow up 4-6 inches, and they've filled up the garbage can already. I'm at a loss as to what to do next. Everything I've read says 130-150 days, but it's only been 50 days or so. I guess I just let them grow out the top of the can? |
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The sawdust has been aged only a few months. I've got 5 bails of hay that are in pretty bad shape, they have been wet a lot and were inclined to fall apart when moved. I may see if I can spread it out and run over it with the lawn mower to break it down into a finer texture. Will I need to jack up the amount of nitrogen I'm putting on them to offset that used by the decomposition of the hay?
I can probably get motre hay from a farmer friend of mine. |
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Well, the trouble is, if it's HAY, it'll have seeds in it. If it's fairly rotten, you might not have a problem, but if it's not, you'll have trouble. If it's STRAW, that's ideal. If it's partially rotted straw, I wouldn't worry with chopping it up, I'd just spread it out and fork it into the soil and let nature do its thing, but I'm lazy like that. As long as there's something in there to loosen up the soil it won't matter. So is it HAY, or straw? As to the nitrogen...maybe a little, but don't overdo it. Can you take pictures of this hay/straw stuff? If I could see how rotten it was it would help. If not, you can make your best guess. I'm less concerned with straw than with sawdust as a rule because sawdust––especially hardwood sawdust like oak, takes a LOT of time to break down, and uses up a lot of nutrients for the bacteria's work. It could be that your sawdust has composted enough, but I don't know. That's one of those things I would know by looking at it and putting my hands in it––just something that comes from experience. Straw breaks down fairly easily and uses less resources to do so. However it does use SOME. So this is one of those times when I think you're just going to have to watch your plants' reactions closely. If you put this on and see the plants getting paler in a week or so, you'll know you need to feed a little more. But I always err on the side of caution when increasing fertilizers. It's easier to catch the plant up from a deficiency than it is to undo burn. Kitties |
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Quoted:
I planted my seed potatoes in a 40 gallon garbage can in late Feb. I've been covering them every time they grow up 4-6 inches, and they've filled up the garbage can already. I'm at a loss as to what to do next. Everything I've read says 130-150 days, but it's only been 50 days or so. I guess I just let them grow out the top of the can? My guess is most of the growth to date has been in the stem and leaves and not the potatoes themselves. If you stop putting stuff around them, the growth will focus on the leaves and the potatoes. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
I planted my seed potatoes in a 40 gallon garbage can in late Feb. I've been covering them every time they grow up 4-6 inches, and they've filled up the garbage can already. I'm at a loss as to what to do next. Everything I've read says 130-150 days, but it's only been 50 days or so. I guess I just let them grow out the top of the can? My guess is most of the growth to date has been in the stem and leaves and not the potatoes themselves. If you stop putting stuff around them, the growth will focus on the leaves and the potatoes. Yeah, I can't really put anything else around them, since there's no more room in the can. I guess I'll just keep them watered and hope for a can full of potatoes once the plants die. 
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Quoted:
Yeah, I can't really put anything else around them, since there's no more room in the can. I guess I'll just keep them watered and hope for a can full of potatoes once the plants die. No reason you have to wait all that long. You should be able to get some small eating taters in a month or so. |
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I think Ibob is right. It's almost certain that you've got top growth but not a lot of potato size yet. If you stop covering them up and let them grow more leaves (which is, largely, how they produce the potatoes––making plant "food" using their leaves and storing it in the roots/tubers/potatoes) they'll begin adding size to the potatoes that are already forming on the roots underneath. It'd be interesting to see what's inside that can though.... Just sayin.  Kitties |